Field Notes

 'With brave wings she flies'

Inspiration can come from anywhere, but somehow it means more coming from your surroundings. One of our Swedish Aspen trees in our backyard inspired me to make. This picture was taken a day before the snow storm hit.

......and this is what I came up with.

The Base:

Starting with distress watercolour card stock as a base, blend distress ink in lost shadow. Emboss with texture fades birch trees. Next swipe pumice stone distress oxide over top on the raised areas of the birch trees.

It's all in the layers:

Using watercolour card stock, emboss with 3D texture fades in cracked, then die cut embossed background with the thinlits die branched birch. This gives it a more wood like texture for the trees. Next swipe distress inks in old paper and scorched timber, overlapping on the trunks. Use pop ups and overlay on top of background to create dimension.

Making the birds into robins:

Die cut mixed media heavy stock in white with the thinlits dies in silhouette birds. Then blend with distress inks in rusty hinge, pumice stone and scorched timber. Next using a splat box, splatter brush and distress paint in picket fence is used to create the white dots on the birds. Added pop ups for dimension.

The finishing touches:

Machine stitched the two sides of the card leaving loose threads at each of the corners. Wrap twine around the card a few times and thread through a TH/idea-ology word token, then tie a knot at the end. To hi light the words on the token, rub distress crayon in picket fence over top, and gently wipe away excess crayon.

I hope you enjoyed my tutorial and it leaves you feeling inspired.

Christina

My Craft Space

 Ready. And. Breathe.

It's a very good feeling and a sense of accomplishment when you set out goals no matter how big or small, and get it done. This was the last few days for me. I set myself up to reorganize my craft space. The agony and fear of possibly missing something only to find it was right under your nose. lol Although I did purge a few things to donate, which feels good. I can honestly say, it's a Zen moment. 'Ahhhh' After 3 days my craft space is finished. Now for the guided tour. I took a few photos for hi lights and my most favourite storage spaces. So here we go.....

A view from the door going into my craft space. Who would've thought there would be carpet and room to walk around, lol. It's very gratifying to know that there is a sacred space away from the world that is your own. 

This side of my craft desk is where I keep my distress inks/oxides. They are in those white shelving cubes to the left of my desk. They are very handy especially when working on a project. The other half of my desk is where you will find me in the 'Zone' Everything I need is at the ready. From distress watercolour card stock to collage medium etc. 

 

'If you're waiting for a sign ~ this is it'  

This is one of my favourite signs, I got it at a show home furniture store, long time ago. This is apart of a shelving unit, the top part actually and one of my favourites, down below is where I keep my reinkers, adhesives, twine etc. 

This has got to be one of my all time favourite storage solutions. These are two shelving units with nine cubes per unit. Although I liked having my TH/SA stamps in their binders, I felt I was missing out on what they looked like and are now much easier to find. The same goes for the TH/Sizzix dies, I had stored them in fabric cubes. It looked nice but wasn't the same. I'm a visual person. So this is perfect for me.

Here is a close up of how I store my stamp sets. These wired baskets are perfect for them. Each basket holds 20 stamp sets. I absolutely LOVE it! And yes I'm a "flicker" lol! It's easy for me to sort through and take what I need.

The same goes for Tim's dies. These wired baskets hold 36 thinlit dies and about 10 of the bigz dies. It's very convenient and I gotta say I love the look of it! 

I hope you enjoyed my mini tour of my craft space and it leaves you feeling inspired.

Christina